


Work Out Just Fine

by alexygalaxy



Series: Widojest Week 2019 [3]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, actually there's kinda spoilers up to ep 62, although its pushing the definition of angst to call it that, i did my best to channel sam riegel for this, its like middle school crush drama, mom mode nott, spoilers for notts backstory btw (post e48), terrible puns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-26 01:31:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19757839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexygalaxy/pseuds/alexygalaxy
Summary: Operation Fluffernutter 2: Frumpkinnutter: Catnapped: The Cat Burglary of the Century: These Detectives Don’t Solve Crimes, They Commit Them is a perfect plan until it’s not, and Jester has to improvise a distraction.





	Work Out Just Fine

**Author's Note:**

> here it is, widojest week day 3: kissing as a distraction/mischief
> 
> i see your "they have to kiss as a distraction for a third party" and raise you one "they have to kiss as a distraction for one of the parties involved in kissing". this one's short but sweet, and totally happened during their week off in xhorhas. 
> 
> hope you enjoy!!

“Jester,” Nott announced, “this is the cutest fucking thing we’ve ever made.”

“Nott,” Jester answered, “you’re absolutely correct.”

The two of them were holding up their most recent project: a small dress they had sewn out of scrap fabric bought when Jester went into town to pick up her most recent clothing commission. It was pale purple, patterned with little silver swirls all across it, with ruffled lace attached at the neck and bottom hem. A couple buttons from Nott’s stash were aligned down the back, attached a little haphazardly, but still serving their purpose. They had used the leftover lace to create a matching necklace. Well, collar might be a more appropriate word, because the outfit was going on Frumpkin.

However, Frumpkin presumably was not going to be a very willing participant, so the two had decided to steal him. Would Caleb probably have given him over if either Jester or Nott had asked nicely? Yes. But would it be way more fun to pull off a heist? Also yes.

Nott laid her end of the dress back on the bed, followed by Jester who smoothed it out as Nott began to speak. “Okay, last time I checked, Caleb was still in the library working on his spells, and he had Frumpkin with him. So, we go down there, I hide near the door to the Training Room -” 

“- And I go in there and distract him,” Jester completed.

“Right. Then I sneak in, grab the cat, and get out.”

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t notice.” 

“Wait five minutes, then meet me back here.” 

“Then, we commence the fashion show.”

“Cat-shion show,” Nott corrected.

Jester agreed, nodding sagely. “Let’s do it.” 

The two of them exited Nott’s room, passing through the Happy Room and the War Room, waving at Yasha through her open door. They went down the stairs, shushing each other’s giggles as they stepped into the main entry hall. Cracking open the door to the Training Room, Nott tip-toed in, Jester trailing close behind. Stopping before the door to the library, Nott turned to face Jester. 

“Frumpkinnutter?” she said, flipping up the hood on her cloak and pressing close to the wall.

“Fumpkinnutter,” Jester repeated, turning the handle and swinging the door wide. 

Caleb was inside as Nott had promised, cross legged on one of the couches with his cat on his lap and his nose in a book. “Yo Cayleb!” She half-yelled, half-sang as she flounced into the room. 

He did not even look up to acknowledge her, though Frumpkin did lift his head and swivel his ears in her direction. Careful to leave the door open for Nott, Jester hurried towards the couch. She flopped down next to Caleb, shaking the cushions enough for Frumpkin to let out an annoyed mrrp! and for Caleb to reach down a hand to steady him. 

“Afternoon, Lavorre,” he said, eyes still locked on whatever he was reading. 

“Afternoon, Widogast,” Jester mimicked, leaning towards Caleb to get a glance at his book. “What’re you looking at?”

He leaned away from her slightly, raising a shoulder defensively in an attempt to block her view.

“Ooooh, you’re embarrassed,” Jester teased, prodding Caleb’s side with a finger. “It’s smut, isn’t it.”

“Nein,” he answered, taking the hand that had been rubbing Frumpkin’s ears and using it to swat Jester’s finger away. “Just spells. Trying to learn a new one.”

“Sure, I _totally_ believe you,” Jester said, trying to hide any hint of concern in her voice. 

Gods damn it, this was going to be harder than she thought. Not even Nott could steal Frumpkin from right out of Caleb’s lap, despite being as invested in his book as he was. And it didn’t count as a _heist_ if she just took the cat and ignored any protest. Her next best option, she thought, was to annoy him into standing up so he’d be forced to put Frumpkin elsewhere. 

Glancing about as inconspicuous as she could, her eyes were drawn to a few throw pillows that were strewn across an empty armchair. She stood, walked over to the chair, and gathered them in her arms. Caleb was paying no attention, which normally would disappoint her, but right now she considered it an advantage. Falling back onto the couch and mildly disturbing the cat yet again, Jester considered her horde.

She picked up one of the pillows, silky blue with gold trim, and balanced it carefully on Caleb’s head. 

“You looked like you needed at hat,” she said, snickering. 

Caleb reached up with one hand, pulling the pillow off his head and actually bothering to take his eyes off his book to look at it.

“Mm, you should keep it. It is blue, just like you,” he said, meeting Jester’s gaze for the first time as he slipped the pillow between her horns, smirking ever so slightly.

“Well, what about _this_ one?” she asked, placing a different pillow onto him. It was red and silver, so it was more Caleb’s color scheme, a fact of which she informed him.

“I’m not an autumn,” he answered, moving his book out of the way to lob it back at her. “Nice dress by the way,” he added, gesturing with his book hand at Jester’s clothes.

“Oh, uh.” Jester stuttered. Caleb had barely looked at her the whole time she’d been in here, she certainly didn’t think he would have noticed, let alone commented on, her outfit. “Th-thanks! Nott and I just went and picked it up from the tailor’s today.”

“It’s a good style on you.” He started to lift his book back up, and Jester was worried she was losing her chance to distract him. 

She stood from the couch, stepping a bit out in front of Caleb. She grabbed the skirt in both hands and held it out for him to inspect.

“You think so?” she asked, shifting her weight into one hip, then the other, hoping it’d keep him interested. 

It seemed to be working, the book was stopped midway to his face, and he did appear to be staring at the dress. Jester let the skirt drop from her hands, then, and started to twirl. Arms flying out sideways, skirt ruffling around her knees, she turned about a few times. As she came to a stop, skirt slowly swishing back down, she glanced at Caleb. He was smiling, small but happy, as he looked her up and down. 

“I _do_ think so.” He took a second longer to look at her before pulling the book back up and returning to his rhythmic stroking of Frumpkin. 

“Jester, how’s it going? You can reply to this message,” Nott’s voice rasped in Jester’s ear. 

“Not good. He’s super focused reading and Frumpkin’s in his lap,” Jester murmured, shooting a glance at the still-open doorway to the room where Nott was hiding.

“Make him stand up, you can reply to this message.”

“Okay, okay, hold on.”

She leaned forward, bending at the hip to rest her nose on the top of Caleb’s book. “If you’re gonna sit there and read all day, I might as well keep you company.”

“Okay. Do you want my permission? Because you do not need it.”

“No,” Jester said, standing back up and beginning to move towards the bookshelves. “I want your recommendation. You’re the one who stocked the library, come over here and pick out something good for me.” 

Caleb set his book down, spine up and cracked open to save the page, and shook his head in mock disapproval. Cooing at Frumpkin, he grabbed his cat under the arms and, _gods DAMN it_ , guided him up onto sit on his shoulder. Frumpkin scrabbled around until he was lying fully across the back of his neck, in what Caleb had dubbed “scarf mode”. Cat situated, Caleb moved to join Jester at the bookcase.

Jester stared as he ran a hand along the books, fingers sliding across the spine of each novel. He searched several shelves before selecting one with an approving hum. 

“You’ll like this one,” he said, holding it out. “It’s a romance novel. A little saucy.”

“Thanks.” Jester took it from him, feigning interest in the cover to hide her frustration. 

She followed him back to the couch, and settled down next to him. Caleb pulled his legs up and lifted Frumpkin back down to his lap. Jester turned sideways, leaning her back against the armrest and bending her legs to use her knees as a book rest. She flipped the book open, skimming the words as she tried to think of another way to get Caleb up.

There was something about a gardener boy in the book, grew some kind of plant, in the royal garden maybe? There was a princess too, who was really beautiful and rich. Jester paid a bit more attention when they talked about her. She rarely left her castle, but she had to take a husband soon, and she was all sad about it, and she went to cry in the garden. 

She ran into the farm boy there, that’s when it started getting interesting. They talked for a bit and he comforted her, and as the princess was getting up to leave, the farm boy kissed her out of the blue. It was pretty romantic, if Jester had anything to say about it.

“I see you reading, what’s taking so long? Youcanreplytothismessage.”

“I’m _trying_ , Nott. He keeps bringing Frumpkin when he gets up.”

“Get him up unexpectedly, then. Shock him. I need a clear shot at the cat. You can reply to -”

“Alright, alright, I’ll figure something out.”

Shock, shock, she needed a shock. Something big enough to make him jump and make Frumpkin run away, but nothing so big that it would actually scare him. Jester didn’t want to be _mean_. She needed it to be a nice shock, but also a really distracting one. She sighed, futzing with the corner of a page as she thought.

She had an idea.

“Hey Caleb?” Jester asked, dropping the book on the floor and shifting so she was sitting on her shins. 

Caleb turned his head, setting down his own book to glance Jester’s way. “Hm?”

Jester reached across the couch, took a fistful of Caleb’s shirt, dragged him towards her and planted a kiss right to his mouth.

It worked as intended. The combination of being suddenly dragged sideways and the way he jolted as he realized what was happening sent Frumpkin shooting off his lap and scurrying across the floor. 

Jester pulled back, releasing Caleb’s shirt and letting him fall back to his original position. She could feel her face heating up; a reaction shared by Caleb, whose cheeks were also turning bright red. He looked up at her, brow furrowed deep and fingers tapping gingerly at his lips as though they were burnt. His mouth opened and closed as he struggled for words. 

“What was that for?” he managed to spit out.

“I …” Jester started, realizing she really hadn’t thought this plan through. She couldn’t _tell_ Caleb why she had kissed him, but she also couldn't say nothing. “It’s something that, uh, I’ve always wanted to try," she decided on. It wasn't a lie.

Caleb continued to stare at her in shocked silence, and she could feel her stomach beginning to knot. Kissing him was a very, very, very bad idea. She shouldn’t have done it, but she did, and now she couldn’t undo it. 

“Sorry,” she said, stepping off from the couch and backing away. “Sorry.”

She turned and hurried out of the room, far too embarrassed to face Caleb. She pulled the door shut behind her, hoping that Nott had gotten out already. She leaned against it for support, pressing her face into her hands and trying to clear her head. After a minute, she could feel the blush begin to fade, and she started to head upstairs to meet Nott and ignore what she had just done.

* * *

Jester tied the lace collar in a little bow at the back of Frumpkin’s neck and stepped back, fighting to keep a gleeful smile on her face. 

“He’s so cute!” Nott trilled. “And our plan went pretty much perfectly.”

“Yeah,” Jester replied, lack of excitement becoming apparent in her voice.

“Here, here, let me hold him for you, and you can sketch this for the Traveller.” Nott grabbed Frumpkin around the waist, dangling him in the air with his dress on display and grin splitting her face behind him.

“Oh.” Jester reached for her sketchbook, placing a pen to the page. She scratched in a few curves, but the shape of Frumkin’s head wasn’t coming out right at _all_ , and she didn’t want to be drawing right now anyway, especially not this, because all she could think about was how _stupid_ it was to have kissed Caleb just to steal his cat. “Let him go Nott, I’m not drawing it,” she said, slamming her book closed with abnormal force. 

Nott set the cat down, and reached a hand towards Jester, who pulled away from the contact. 

“Jes, what’s wrong?” she asked, voice concerned.

“Nothing,” Jester said flatly.

“That’s bullshit. You can tell me what’s wrong.”

“Nothing!” Jester emphasized, but the tears brimming up in her eyes made Nott tilt her head in disbelief. “Nothing important,” she amended. “I just ... did something stupid. It’s fine.”

“In the library?”

“Yeah, you probably saw. You were watching the whole time.”

“I wasn’t actually, I didn’t see anything between the last message I sent and the point when Frumpkin ran through the door.”

“Great, then I don’t need to tell you about it.”

“Jes.”

“It’s _fine_.”

“ _Jester._ ” Nott reached for Jester’s arm again, and this time Jester did not shy away, instead seeming to crumple under the touch. Her shoulders slouched and her face fell into true distress.

“I kissed Caleb,” she said, turning to Nott with her lip beginning to tremble. 

“Oh.” Nott took a moment to process. “Isn’t that a good thing?”

“ _No_ ,” Jester wailed, tears streaking down her cheeks, “Its _NOT_ ! It was really STUPID and MEAN and TERRIBLE and I shouldn’t have done it, cause kissing someone as a joke is _awful_ , and it’s even WORSE that I did it to _trick_ him, and that was our _first kiss_ and those are supposed to be SPECIAL, but instead I just did it so we could be MEAN to him and even if I _did_ want to do it I shouldn’t have done it like _that_ , and now he probably HATES me and thinks I’m _weird_ and a _freak_ because I kissed him when he didn’t WANT me to, and even if he _did_ want me to, he’s gonna find out _why_ I did it, and either way he won’t want to talk to me EVER and I fucked _everything_ up and I can’t take it _back_ and its - it just - it -” Her sentence dropped off as her chest heaved with sobs. 

“Shh, Jes,” Nott soothed, running a hand over Jester’s back. “He is _not_ going to hate you forever.”

“I k-kissed him as a pra-ank. H-he has every r-reason to.” Jester buried her face in Nott’s shoulder, soaking her shirt with tears and snot. 

“I highly doubt that he will.”

“How do yo-ou _know_?”

“Yeza.”

“What does h-he have to-o do wi-ith anythin-ng?”

“My first kiss with Yeza was a prank,” Nott said bluntly, and Jester’s tear-stained face lifted slowly off Nott’s shoulder. 

“It was?”

“Yes, it was. He got dared to kiss me as a joke, and he did it, and we fell in love anyways. And now we’re married. With a kid. Was it a little mean and stupid at the time? Sure. But I didn’t hate him forever, and I didn’t want to never talk to him again, and it didn’t fuck everything up beyond repair.”

Jester looked at Nott, a few tears still leaking out, but at least she wasn’t actively crying anymore. It was a start.

“And you know what,” Nott continued, brushing one of Jester’s cheeks dry, “I have a feeling that it’ll work out just fine with Caleb too.”

Jester’s frown deepened, and she looked like she was going to start crying again. 

“Shh, shh, Jester. It will. Trust me.”

Jester shoved her face back into Nott’s shoulder, hiccuping as the tears started back up again. Nott wrapped her arms around Jester as best she could, given the odd angle and their size difference. Jester threaded her arms around Nott’s waist as well, pulling tight as she cried. 

A minute later, she backed away, sniffling and wiping at her cheeks. 

“Jester,” Nott said, letting one arm drop from Jester while threading the other around her shoulders.

“Mhm?”

“Go talk to him. It won’t help to wait. It’ll be fine.”

“I should go talk to him.”

Nott nodded, giving a reassuring squeeze to Jester. “Yes. And Jes?”

“Hm?”

“If he’s mean to you, I _will_ kill him.”

That earned a shaky laugh from Jester before she stood and made her way to the door to search for Caleb.

* * *

She started with the library, where she had left him, taking no special care to approach with caution this time. She stood at the oak door, still shut, and took a deep breath. It was gonna be fine. It was _gonna_ be _fine_. Turning the handle with one hand and rapping with the other, she peeked into the gap.

“Caleb?” she called to the room.

“Ja?” he answered, voice somewhat distant. 

“It’s me. Can I, uh, talk to you?”

“Ja, sure.” Across the room, the door to Caleb’s room swung open and he stepped through, locking eyes with Jester almost immediately. "What do you need?"

“Sorry.” She diverted her gaze to the floor as she apologized, and slid through the gap in the doorway.

“You keep saying sorry, Jester. What are you sorry for?”

Jester laughed, a solitary loud cackle. Caleb made no further response, but took a few tentative steps forward. 

“Forkissingyou,” she mumbled eventually.

“Hm?”

“For kissing you!” Jester lifted her head as she spoke, attempting to gauge anger or upset in Caleb’s face, “I’m sorry for kissing you, because I did it to distract you so Nott could take your cat. He’s upstairs if you want him.” She gestured vaguely upwards with a hand.

Caleb’s face pulled together in confusion as Jester talked.

“And I’m sorry,” she continued, making her way across the room, “because that was really stupid and mean of me to do, and you didn’t deserve it at all -”

“I’m not mad.”

“- and I should have thought before I did it but I didn’t, and I’m really sorry and I hope things aren’t weird between us because of this and -”

“Jester, I am not mad.”

“- I kind of want to just pretend it never -” She stopped in her tracks, a few feet shy of Caleb, but refusing to meet his gaze.

“I am not mad about this,” his voice came from above her.

“You’re … not?”

“A bit flustered, sure, but not mad.”

Jester’s brow that furrowed, then. “But it was mean. And stupid. And mean.”

“Jester, I am the last man in the world who could judge someone for being a _little_ stupid and mean _one time_. Really, it is fine.”

She scowled at that.

The room was dead quiet, making Jester was hyper aware of how uneven her breathing still was from sobbing on Nott a few minutes earlier. Caleb was just standing there, not moving but not saying anything either, and breathing like a normal person. She raised her head up to him.

He was smiling, a small smile, though it would’ve been considered a medium one by Caleb standards. He was doing it even though he had no right or reason to be smiling at all, and it was so oddly calm that Jester felt her breathing begin to even and her lips to tug upwards almost involuntarily. It was crazy how Caleb could do that, get inside her head when she was upset and talk her down, when sometimes she couldn’t even do it to herself, just by looking at her. 

And he had been looking at her, and her at him, for a good while, without saying anything. She ought to say something.

“I meant it, when I said I’d wanted to try it for a while,” Jester blurted, regretting it even as it was coming out of her mouth. She started to blush again, and dropped her eyes back to the floor.

“Me too.”

“You too, what?”

“I have also wanted to try that for a while. Kissing you, I mean.” Jester looked back up to find Caleb bright red, rubbing his neck anxiously with his hand.

Jester was only a couple steps from Caleb at that point, and he had just said that he wanted to kiss her too, and she was still thinking about how actually pretty good the first kiss was, and they were both already embarrassed to high heaven, so she did something that she really hoped wasn’t stupid and mean this time.

She closed the gap between them and, once again, grabbed Caleb’s shirt and pulled him towards her for a kiss. He was still caught off guard, but less so than the first time. After a moment of shock, he relaxed into her, lifting a hand to cup Jester’s jaw as he kissed back. When Jester pulled away, his smile hadn’t fallen.

“Are you going to apologize for that one, Lavorre?” Caleb said, still holding Jester’s face.

Jester shook her head, moving her hand from Caleb’s shirt to the back of his neck. “If I did, I wouldn’t mean it.”

The grin cracked wider across Caleb’s lips. He finally let his hand drop from Jester’s cheek, only to use it to grab onto Jester’s free one, causing her blush to deepen. 

“And Jester?”

“Yeah?”

“If you had asked for my cat, I would have just given him to you.”

“But that’s less _fun_ ,” Jester whined endearingly. “And if I had, I wouldn’t have gotten to do this.” She stretched up for another kiss, which Caleb very gladly gave. 

Okay, Jester thought, maybe Nott was right. Caleb didn’t actually hate her forever. Things seemed to be working out more than fine. Far more.

**Author's Note:**

> hope you all enjoyed!! 
> 
> as always please comment/leave kudos if you so desire, or hmu at my tumblr [cadykeus-clay](https://cadykeus-clay.tumblr.com) if you'd like to as well!


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